SOME RARITIES FROM THE PAST
Cape Cod, due in large part to its location and geography, attracts a wide range of vagrant birds from all corners of the globe. The links below provide photos and other documentation for some of the avian waifs that have appeared here over the years.
Two (or more) Pacific Loons – Provincetown, February & November 2004
Brown Pelicans in Harwich and Brewster in November 2012, following super storm Sandy.
Eurasian Kestrel – Chatham, April 2002
Purple Gallinule – East Orleans, August 2006
American Avocet – Eastham, August 2002
Common Ringed Plover – South Beach, Chatham, September 2010
Little Stint – South Beach, Chatham, July 2005
Two more Little Stints – South Beach, Chatham, July and September 2012
Red-necked Stint – South Beach, Chatham, August 2002
Red-necked Stint – South Beach & North Monomoy, Chatham, July & August 2003
Red-necked Stint – South Beach, Chatham, June 2010
An atypical American(?) Golden-Plover – South Beach, Chatham, May 2005
Two Bar-tailed Godwits – North Monomoy & South Beach, Chatham, May & June 2004
Bar-tailed Godwit – South Beach, Chatham, June – August 2012
A juvenile Dunlin – Eastham, 23 October 2004 (an unusually late date for this plumage)
An over-wintering Short-billed Dowitcher – Harwich, December 2011 – March 2012; the first confirmed over-wintering of this species in New England.
A late possible eastern Willet, East Orleans, 24 December 2006.
Franklin’s Gull – Wellfleet, November 2005
Slaty-backed Gull – Wellfleet, January 2012
Black-tailed Gull – Provincetown, November 2008
Ivory Gull – Provincetown, January 2010
Elegant Tern – South Beach, Chatham, August 2002
Pomarine Jaeger – Osterville, May 2004 (not a vagrant, but very rare sitting on the beach, especially in spring!)
Calliope Hummingbird – Eastham, December 2002 (first state record)
Rufous Hummingbird – Sandwich, October 2003
Rufous Hummingbird – Dennis, November 2006
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher – Truro, November 2006
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher – Truro, November 2007
Townsend’s Solitaire – Truro, November 2005
Bohemian Waxwings – Truro, January & March 2004
“Audubon’s” Warbler – Truro, November 2012
Cassins’s Sparrow – Truro, May 2011
